{"id":41775,"date":"2014-07-31T20:43:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=41775"},"modified":"2014-07-31T20:43:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T00:43:08","slug":"now-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/now-69\/","title":{"rendered":"Now and Then"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/gallery\/14aug\/fredlewisth.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"image\" class=\"alignleft size-full\" \/>Fred Lewis is still talking bagpipes<!--more--><br \/>\nHad it not been for a piece broadcast by CMU Public Radio last week we might have missed a very special day. Last Sunday was, we were told, Bagpipe Appreciation Day.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/gallery\/14aug\/fredlewis.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"image\" class=\"alignleft size-full\" \/>Those of us who grew up in St. Johns during the 1950s already had a special awareness, if not always appreciation, for the bagpipes. And more than a few children had their own chanters, the part of the pipe used to finger the notes, in anticipation of the day when they might take up the bagpipes themselves.<br \/>\nSo we were not too surprised when one of the people interviewed on the radio was none other than St. Johns\u2019 own Fred Lewis, the man who had introduced a couple of generations of us to the instrument.<br \/>\nIn the piece Fred said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Well, in World War II I got involved with the Cameronians by mistake over in Burma and they had two bagpipers with them. That&#8217;s the first time I heard it.<br \/>\nPeople who like bagpipes we get chills in our backs, still do. And I decided if I got out of that mess I would take up bagpiping, so I did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/gallery\/14aug\/fredlewis1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"image\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" \/><br \/>\nFred did make it out of World War Two, and he made his way to Alma College to find someone who would teach him the bagpipes.<br \/>\nHe played his first competition in 1950, and he played for years with the Glen Erin Pipe band out of Lansing.<br \/>\nFred now lives and teaches bagpipes in Muskegon.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/gallery\/14aug\/fredlewis4.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"image\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fred Lewis is still talking bagpipes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-now-and-then"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}